WASHINGTON -- A federal court should not permit five leading Internet companies to reveal how often they are ordered to turn over information about their customers in national security investigations, the government argued in papers released Wednesday.

In a filing with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the government said that allowing the companies to release such detailed information "would be invaluable to our adversaries," providing a clear picture of where the government's surveillance efforts are directed and how its surveillance activities change over time, the court papers stated.

Yahoo responded that the government's decision to block information-sharing "ultimately breeds mistrust and suspicion -- both of the United States and of companies that must comply with government legal directives." Google said the company was disappointed that the Justice Department opposed "greater transparency" for the government's requests for user information. Microsoft said it was critical to have an informed debate about the right balance between personal privacy and national security.

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The companies say they want to make the disclosures in order to correct inaccuracies in news reports and to alleviate public speculation about the scope of the companies' cooperation with the U.S. government. The providers want to show that only a tiny fraction of their customers' accounts have been subject to legal orders.

The government said that if the companies "are permitted to make these disclosures, the harms to national security would be compounded by the fact that other companies would surely seek to make similar disclosures." As a result, our adversaries could soon be able to obtain a comprehensive picture" of surveillance activities.

Following leaks about National Security Agency surveillance last June, the FBI allowed communications providers to report the number of orders they received from the government and the number of accounts affected by such orders.

In August, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said he'll release figures every year on how many top-secret court orders are issued and how many people are targeted because of them. In its court filing, the Justice Department said Clapper's report "will not provide our adversaries with a road map" because the reporting will not be broken down by company, and the companies' reporting will aggregate criminal and noncriminal; content and noncontent; and federal, state and local surveillance.